kanye west and joan smalls star in balmain's opulent new campaign

Balmain and Kanye West are back at it again with a new campaign. This morning the brand Instagram-announced the return of the #BALMAINARMY, led this fall/winter 16 season by Yeezus and Joan Smalls. It's not West's first time playing model for the French fashion house, though it's the first time he's appeared unaccompanied by his wife. In 2014 West and Kim Kardashian starred in Balmain's spring/summer 15 menswear campaign, photographed by Mario Sorrenti off the back of their Vogue cover hype. This time around Steven Klein was tapped to photograph a graceful West and Smalls in black, white, and heavily bedazzled Balmain threads. Creative director Pascal Dangin shared the image on his own Instagram, calling the concept a "music fashion fusion" and promising more ads to come soon.

Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing has been not-so-quietly leading a diversity revolution with the aid of West (and the Kardashian clan), telling us last year that he was excited by KimYe's rare status as a mixed-race power couple. Looks like the next phase of his Army is being cast along similarly awesome lines.